Beyond the sartorial wonder of bipartisan Easter egg-hued ties (Harry Reid and John Boehner shared a speckled coral and blue number, Charles Schumer’s was orange, Marco Rubio went with pastel blue, and Joe Biden chose lavendar…all we needed were jelly beans and a bunny!), and Marco Rubio’s unfortunate case of flop-thirst (on a par with Howard Dean’s scream: truly inconsequential and ultimately unforgettable), the one most noted and, as it turns out, Tweeted about element of the State of the Union Address – well, besides the President’s speech – was the condition of Joe Biden’s eyes.

Squinting and slit-eyed, the usually ebullient Biden seemed subdued throughout the speech, even somewhat pained in the bright lights of the chamber. Turns out he was. Pained, that is.

While the pale Biden (although who doesn’t pale next to the orangey goodness of Speaker Boehner?) smiled and clapped on cue, it was clear all was not right with our feisty Vice President. Wearing atypical rimless glasses, he appeared tired and wan. What’s being reported by online sources, including the Huffington Post, is that Biden scratched his cornea with a contact lens earlier in the week, leaving it sensitive, sore and bloodshot.

While the injury is minor, the display of it sparked a Twitter conflagration, with Tweets flying across the web wondering what on earth was going on with Joe’s eyes. ABC News compiled a few of the more enthusiastic/concerned tweets on the topic. Here are images of a few:

There were more (they might still be going, as a matter of fact…this was BIG news!), but you get the gist.

The truth is, no matter how serious, how meaningful, or how important the State of the Union Address is – and anyone watching agrees it’s important – the level of attention required and the posture of sitting and listening for a somewhat lengthy period of time – much like long church services or those lectures in chemistry class – the mind can’t help but wander from time to time and fixate on items of literally no importance. Like ties. Or who wasn’t clapping. Or why Boehner wasn’t wearing the green ribbon. Or how ’bout that lady who refused to clap for something really important (I forgot what)? And, wow, Michelle Obama is either really tall or the ladies around her are tiny! Even the way Eric Cantor’s hair puffs up all pompadourish.

And, of course, Joe Biden’s eyes.

But now that we’ve got that all sorted out, we’ll move on to the meat of the speech and wish Joe and his sparklers a speedy recovery!